It's Sew Easy

A good designer is an absolute wizard with their sewing machine, and brilliant designer is a master with their sewing needle. With the advent of the sewing machine back in 1790, over time, hand sewing withered away, appreciated by a few, and replaced by the modern machine. But let’s not forget, we’ve hand-sewing our clothes for thousands of years. If you ever make the leap from hobby sewing to couture sewing, learning how to hands-sew is a requirement, and is often essential in finishing a garment.

Couture sewing aside, hand-sewing, or hand-stitching as it’s often called, is commonly used to stitch items together before they are finished with a machine, finish an item, and attaching fasteners. There are several different stitches that can be used to accomplish all of the above, and here are some that may help you with your newest project.

Basting Stitches

This is one of the most important stitches you’ll ever use, and the easiest. I use the basting stitch to ensure that the seam on my piece are fitting correctly, and that I’ve put darts in the right place. This is a good practice to get into the habit of before you finish your piece with a machine so you don’t risk ruining the fabric by making a mistake. Basting is also great for working with slippery fabric. Satins and silks can sometimes bunch, gather  and slip in places you don’t want it to, and basting it before you finish it. I’m also a big fan of basting for holding a zipper in place, before attaching my zipper foot to my Janome.

Another incredibly useful basting stitch, is the diagonal basting stitch. I use this form of basting stitch when I’m trying to hold together several pieces of fabric or if I am working with an unusually thick fabric. It’s more stable and just as easy to remove after you’ve finished with a machine. The thicker the fabric, the larger your stitches should be. If you need to sew a blind hem, though you can do it with a machine, I prefer to hand-sew it. For a tutorial on how to master this ultra useful stitch, check out this video.

Once you’ve acquired all of the right tools, the right machine, before an artists can start to create, they need to understand the medium they’re working with. If you are learning how to become a fashion designer, you must understand the inner-workings of the fibres you are working with. And if you’re just learning to sew for fun, working with a difficult fabric  has the ability to throw you off and make you feel discouraged. Knowledge is power, right? Here are a few tips.

Fabric consists of small fibres that can be man-made like polyester, or natural like wool. When you start sewing with patterns, they will often suggest what fabric is best suited for the project. But if you’ve never really touched, or examined fabric closely, it’s hard to know what you’re looking for or what you’re look at exactly.

Cotton. This is one of the most common and versatile fabrics used, and the one you will most likely beexperimenting with first. Cotton comes from the little seed pods or balls of the cotton plant. The United States is one of the largest cotton producers in the world, along with India and several countries in the Middle East. Cotton has several interesting properties that you will want to consider when using it to design a garment. It’s a very dyeable fabric, it doesn’t build up static electricity so it’s great for winter, and it’s because it’s very absorbent, in the heat, it will wick warmth away from the body.

Chambray. This is a cotton fabric that is generally used to make men’s shirts, children’s clothing and women’s blouses. If you are examining it carefully, you’ll notice that it has a striped property to it. It has a coloured warp thread and a white weft thread. 

Jersey. Personally, one of my favourite fabrics, jersey is gererally used for active leisure wear, underwear, and drapey dresses. It’s a fine cotton that is woven to give it some stretch, which makes it ideal for everyone.

Gingham. Another favourite of mine, gingham is a very simple weave that is featured in several colours. It is made distinctive by its groupings of small white and coloured checkers. It has a stiff, slightly rough feel to it, and is generally used for dresses, skirts, and shirts.

Corduroy. It takes some skill to work with corduroy because of its’ thickness. It’s what we call a “soft pile fabric” and is distinctive because of it’s stripes or ribs. These ribs can be varied thicknesses and depending on the thickness, it can be used to make skirts, men’s shirts or children’s clothes.